One New Year’s Resolution that has not stuck quite yet is to be on time! When we first saw Farley’s January Currently posted we could’ve been number 5…Today we are fashionably late to the party at good ‘ol number 400 something (depends when this post actually goes out…)! But, that’s okay, right? Better late, than never!
If you haven’t visited the Fabulous Farley’s blog, you mustache…just go there, you’ll get it…
Here’s what we’ve currently been up to…
Listening: One of my favorite parts of the day is when the hustle and bustle subsides and all I hear is the tapping of keys as I type.
Loving: We all go dirt bike riding in the desert every year for New Year’s and this year the hubs ended up in the ER. (1 day before the end of the year-not 1 day into the new year so we could start the year meeting our deductable-but that’s neither here nor there).
He always says, “It’s not a matter of if you crash-it’s a matter of when and how bad.” Guess it was his when, but so thankful he is alright. I love that man!
Thinking: No need to explain this one. Just beyond blessed!!!
Wanting: Seriously! I dabble here and there but it’s such a humungous job and I’d rather blog hop!
Needing: Sniffle-my lil’ baby girl ain’t a baby no more! She’s done with the cutesy flowers and pastel colors and wants to rock the peace sign and go gray, green, and purple!
O.L.W: If I had ENERGY I could get my house organized!
Listening: When school is in session, we have very little down time. I feel like we are always busy with homework, sports, and just life. It is nice to listen to my kids relax and enjoy some time to themselves without the pressures of school…And, they are only in 3rd and 5th grades!!
Loving: Have you downloaded the FREE Teachers Pay Teachers App yet? I had an opportunity to test it and help report any bugs before it was released, and now have the official app on my iPhone and new “family” iPad (our first one…welcome to the 21st Century Peeps!). It is so fun! Word on the street is the Android App is coming to a phone near you soon…Stay tuned!
Thinking: Really?!? School?!? Tomorrow?!? Fine…arms crossed and bottom lip pouting. I’ll stay in my pajamas all day today in protest!
Wanting: Really no school tomorrow…Winter Break forever!!! Who’s with me???
Needing: I have a problem…I have good intentions, but I start something and cannot finish. I currently have all of our Christmas decor moved from their places and stacked on the kitchen table…just waiting for an elf to come and clean it all up. I’m guessing that elf would be me (all 5′ 4″ of me, which is quite tall by elf standards)…arms crossed and bottom lip pouting. I’ll stay in my pajamas all day today in protest!
O.L.W: Inspire
This word came to me in a Mommy Moment this past year…You know I’m going to explain, so pull up a chair…
My son has a friend in his class who battles Juvenile Diabetes. His teacher decided to share a short video with the class (with the family’s permission of course!) highlighting her daily struggle, and it struck a nerve with my son… I will always remember watching that video with him a few months back. We both watched in silence, taking it in. At the end he just turned his big blue eyes to me and said, “Mom, we have to do something.” Fighting back tears, and not really knowing what he exactly meant I said, “Ok, let’s do it!”
I’m not known to turn down any request for teaching kids about giving and helping others. These life lessons stretch well beyond the classroom, in my humble opinion. So, his idea struck a nerve in me too.
We spent very little time brainstorming what he could do. I tried to listen and let him lead, and he knew what he had in mind. This was not my show. It took about 30 minutes to hash out his idea and the rest just fell into place.
We shared the idea with his friend, her family, and his teacher. They were in!
A few days later, we had created all we needed for the collection, again spending very little time.
One recycled Costco Halloween pretzel tub (see above), a little gold spray paint lid (Added by Mom. Of course, I couldn’t leave it!), one cute font, a few labels, and voila!
He gathered a few friends to speak about it at the monthly Awards Assembly in front of the whole school. This stunned me…He is typically sort of on the shy side of life, but he practiced and practiced until he had his speech just right and he was calm, cool and collected through the entire thing!
Yes, my Teacher Mom heart swelled two sizes that day, I admit…
We gave each class their own collection container, sent a small plastic bag home with each student in the school with a note for collecting, put the large bin in the front office and waited…
We gave the school 2 weeks to collect, and then rough tabulated the results.
Being
a teacher at the same school helps…Our first grade class happened to
be learning about dimes around this time, so I asked his 5th grade teacher if they could
come and count the Dimes for Diabetes with our class. Nothing fancy, we
just dished out the dough and had them sort, tally (just the dimes) and total on their
whiteboards. It was a great hands-on experience for our Firsties led by our Fifthies.
(I made that word up…)
Final results were left to Coinstar. We took a vote…Roll all those coins ourselves (in which case we may still be at it) or let technology help us. We opted for the second and though the fee hurt us a little, we were beyond grateful for what we received and decided with the school’s blessing we were going to keep it simple this time.
This was just the total of coins….AND, they weren’t just dimes! It was amazing for just two weeks. In the end, after bills and all, the total earned for Juvenile Diabetes Research was $866.74.
After all was said and done, my husband and I sat one night and discussed what our son had done. He said, “You know, it is truly inspiring that a ten year old could come up with such a simple idea and make it happen in such a short time.”
I couldn’t think of a better word than, “inspire”…If ten year olds can do it, I think us twenty, thirty, forty much older folks can too.
So, my one little word and my focus this year is to inspire…
Oh, and about that being on time thing?
That’s a good thing to work on too…
Baby steps, baby steps…
